Locals only planning law to be scrapped

Johnc35

I've heard lately that the "locals only" planning law is on the way out. I'm delighted to hear that if its true!

covey09

Yeah it may be, but don't be surprised if its replaced with an even tighter requirement.

moleyv

Yeah there was a European court ruling. They will just make the other criteria more difficult. Might be a free for all for a little while.

sydthebeat

moleyv wrote: »

Yeah there was a European court ruling. They will just make the other criteria more difficult. Might be a free for all for a little while.

One thing it certainly won't be is a free for all.

They will procrastinate for as long as possible before introducing a new rural policy, in order to have stricter rules in place at the cut off point.

I'd imagine in the region of 10 years time before we'd see anything new.

moleyv

sydthebeat wrote:

They will procrastinate for as long as possible before introducing a new rural policy, in order to have stricter rules in place at the cut off point.

They will have to respect the ruling first with the same other policies.

I agree it will take an age to make new policies, I agree, that's why it will be a free for all

sydthebeat

moleyv wrote: »

They will have to respect the ruling first with the same other policies.

I agree it will take an age to make new policies, I agree, that's why it will be a free for all

They will have to respect the ruling yes, but when they do it is another matter.

For example VRT on vehicles has pretty much been illegal in Ireland since 1992 and we still have it, so don't underestimate the power of the Irish government to procrastinate on introducing a tricky EU ruling.

I would be highly surprised if they simply got rid of the sustainable rural housing guidelines with nothing to replace them. I could also see the government fighting their corner under the argument that there are significant areas of the country where local needs does not apply therfore there is no restrictive ban other than in areas which require it due to the EUs own ruling on ground water pollution.

Yeah but the country has been blighted by houses, along every road, except the motorways... Its getting like suburbia everywhere now.

New rules should be strict on roadside houses but very relaxed where houses are set back or out of sight. Instead of a farmer selling ten sites and blighting 400m of roadway, let him put in a road and put the 10 sites at the end of it and leave the road frontage intact.

And if nobody can see the houses, then the planners can stop the micromanaging they get up to.

moleyv

I'm very against rural housing in principle, but the exception for me, is a local person living there all their life. So wouldn't necessarily be in support of the ruling.

I think it will just take one case to the courts, be that through judicial review, or if there is a more appropriate mechanism, and then they will have to scrap the system.

They don't have to scrap the guidelines, most rural needs policies don't go by it anyway. Just a blind eye thrown to restrict housing.

Mad Benny

moleyv wrote: »

Yeah there was a European court ruling. They will just make the other criteria more difficult. Might be a free for all for a little while.

Do you have a link to that ruling?

sydthebeat

http://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&docid=136301&pageIndex=0&doclang=en&mode=req&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=1027954

knock yourself out

moleyv

Just from reading into this further, the 'news' is based on two rulings made c. 2013. Which were recently brought to the attention of the Minister (Simon Coveney at the time) by some Sligo councillor.

Apparently said councillor brought it to the attention of the Sligo CoCo senior planner, who after reviewing said they would change their policies....

arctictree

There is no 'locals only' policy in planning. I assume the OP is talking about 'local need'? This can be defined a number of ways and this will only get stricter I imagine.

Metric Tensor

"Rural needs" guidelines were brought in to allow planning permission in certain cases where it would otherwise not be granted.

If they were to be removed it would essentially mean no-one could obtain planning permission in said location. The exact opposite to a free for all!

(That won't happen of course - at a minimum most farmers need to live on or very near their farms.)

Johnc35

covey09 wrote: »

Yeah it may be, but don't be surprised if its replaced with an even tighter requirement.

How so? Current law is very tight..don't know how it could be replaced with a tighter one when it seems they're being told to loosen up

Johnc35

arctictree wrote: »

There is no 'locals only' policy in planning. I assume the OP is talking about 'local need'? This can be defined a number of ways and this will only get stricter I imagine.

Study man. They enforce this locals only policy up and down the country. Some areas more so than others. I know many who were refused planning because they weren't local enough to the area including myself. Law or not they tell you that your not local enough and get lost. End of story. Forget building a house for yourself on your own family land. Not right. Thank God finally they're being told to cop on.

covey09

Johnc35 wrote: »

How so? Current law is very tight..don't know how it could be replaced with a tighter one when it seems they're being told to loosen up

OK fair engough but how about they increase contribution (30k in Kildare) fee to be 100,000k , or due to Tourism or green belt large areas of land. They want people in urban centers where facilities are based. IMO could be wrong.

SC024

covey09 wrote: »

OK fair engough but how about they increase contribution (30k in Kildare) fee to be 100,000k , or due to Tourism or green belt large areas of land. They want people in urban centers where facilities are based. IMO could be wrong.

WTF?????